


Take the Keys To My Heart and Just Drive

by mandaestella



Series: I'll Go Anywhere, Pioneer [2]
Category: Alexbelle
Genre: F/M, cannot get enough, i will never love writing anything more than i did this ot3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 07:35:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4426841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandaestella/pseuds/mandaestella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We Are Pioneers sequel. Madeline waits to hear whether she got into Yale. Leven begins to think that maybe she should have applied to college after all. Alex has to make a big decision or two, concerning where he’s going to school and what he’s going to do about his feelings for Madeline’s little sister. The three of them always said they would be best friends no matter what, but that theory is about to be put to the test as senior year comes to a close.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take the Keys To My Heart and Just Drive

**Author's Note:**

> This was a LONG time coming, & as a matter of fact I lost about 8000 words of it off of my computer, & my lovely beta Eli came to my rescue (& I am eternally grateful).
> 
> Feedback is wonderful, as are you all. I love y'all so much.
> 
> xx

_When you’re young, you can fly_  
But we trip on clouds when we get too high  
And we grow up and then it’s gone  
Oh God only knows what we’ll become  
So don’t let me be let me be let me be lonely tonight  
While we’re young and alive  
Take the keys to my car and the keys to my heart and just drive 

 

Madeline was the first girl Alex ever slept with.

They were three months apart. Elina Fuhrman had been with Alex’s mom when she went into labor, and of course his dad was on a business trip. So Elina and three month old Madeline had accompanied Mama Ludwig to the hospital. A few hours after Alex was born, they had put Madeline into his bassinet next to him. In his sleep, he reached out with his little fist and ended up grabbing onto baby Madeline’s hand.

Their parents loved to tell that story.

A few weeks after rescuing Isabelle from her fight with Douchebag, subsequently hooking up with her the same afternoon, and carrying out revenge plans with Madeline, nothing else had happened. Every time Alex started thinking about Isabelle, about how tiny she was and gorgeous and how warm she had been under his hands, Madeline popped into his head – the look on her face when someone pissed her off, her elaborate revenge plots, the way she could yell at someone for hours… how she had always been there for Alex through everything, no matter what he had done or how mad she was at him. He couldn’t do that to her, no matter how much he wanted to.

And before he knew it, he didn’t have time to think about it anymore.

Alex’s hand was balanced over the hats laid out on the table in front of him. There were a couple of photographers there and a whole lot of reporters – not a normal day in the Ludwig house. His parents were hovering behind him, his siblings and his best friends milling around the room.

It was Signing Day.

Alex’s entire life had been leading up to this moment – all his hard work, the hours spent in the gym and on the track, the weeks studying his plays, all those Friday nights under the lights. In the past three weeks, he had narrowed his choices down to Alabama, Auburn, and Louisiana State – the three best schools in the best conference in the country, in Alex’s opinion.

The contracts sat on the table in a pile, just waiting for Alex’s signature, but the hats… those were the big deal. It was kind of funny that the deciding signing factor in the most macho sport in history was a piece of clothing.

They had discussed this, Alex asking everyone he knew for their opinions. His dad had played for Alabama; his mom had been a cheerleader at Auburn. His brother and sisters all thought LSU. Leven had been fussed when Alex had nixed Florida State from the list – “You couldn’t pick somewhere close to the beach, Alex? What am I supposed to do when I visit you?” – and Madeline told Alex to do whatever he wanted and not listen to anyone else.

Alex closed his eyes for a second, blocking out the lights and the noise and the camera flashes. And all of a sudden, his hand was moving towards the middle hat, entirely of its own volition. All of a sudden, he had it all figured out.

The cameras flashed in his face as he picked it up and put it on his head, looking behind him at his dad, who just winked and grinned.

“Alexander Ludwig is going to Auburn!” one of the reporters announced as Alex pulled the contract towards him, signing it and smiling for the cameras.

He kind of lost his head for the next few minutes, riding through on his high of people and excitement and cameras. He signed contracts, talked to Rivals, and posed for pictures, all the while trying to keep an eye on Madeline and Leven, who were sneaking around the corners of the room trying to cozy up to ESPN scouts.

Finally people started leaving, Mama Ludwig pushing them out the door as politely as she could. After the last reporter left, Alex finally managing to peel him away from Leven and shove him out the door, the golden trio threw themselves down on the couch, watching Mama Ludwig flit around them, cleaning up scraps of paper and half-full cups of water.

“You did it, Alex,” Leven said, surprisingly succinct for once in her life. She cuddled up to Alex’s side, sliding under his arm like she had done thousands of times in the past eighteen years. He kissed the top of her head just as the front door opened again, letting in a gust of spring air on the heels of the littlest Fuhrman.

“Hey,” she said softly, almost like she was only talking to Alex, almost like there was no one else in the room.

“Is?” Madeline didn’t even open her eyes, curled up under an Auburn blanket that someone had left in one of the dozens of baskets scattered around the study. “The heck are you doing here?”

“I was… on a run and I saw six thousand people parked outside. And then I remembered it was Signing Day.” Isabelle looked down, nervously twisting her hands in the pocket of her sweatshirt. She shot a look in Alex’s direction. “What’s the verdict?”

“Auburn,” he muttered, not meeting her gaze.

“Well.” She started backing towards the door. “That’s awesome. I’m really happy for you.” The words were barely out of her mouth before she was out the door, letting it slam shut behind her.

“What the hell, Alex?” Leven said, Madeline already dead asleep on Alex’s other side, essentially boxing him in.

“What?”

“Why are you all of a sudden being the biggest douche in the world to baby Fuhrman?” 

“I’m not!”

“You are. She’s like friggin’ Bambi, how could you be mean to her?”

Alex shifted to look at Leven, pushing her slightly away from him so he could glare at her. “I was being mean?”

“You literally said one word to her. One word.” Leven craned her neck, looking around Alex to peek at Madeline, and then she lowered her voice. “You two didn’t like…”

“What?” Alex’s voice neared a yelp and he smacked Leven lightly on the thigh. “What the hell are you talking about, Lev?”

“I am well aware that you are avoiding the question.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “But I am going to just let it go for right now. Because if you had slept with her, you would have told me.”

“I did not sleep with her!”

“You’re my best friend. You _would_ have told me. You should tell me. You can tell me, you know.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Bible?”

Alex rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. 

“You have to say it, Alex.”

“Fine. _Bible_.”

“Good.” Leven snatched the blanket away from a gently snoring Madeline, settling it over her legs and Alex’s. “Good.”

 

Congratulations. It was all she wanted to see. It was that time of year again – millions of high school seniors were sitting around, jumping out of their skins, racing to the window every time they heard a car pull up outside in the hopes that it would be the mailman. And it never was. It was like waiting for water to boil or anticipating a text message – it wouldn’t cooperate until you walked away, until you stopped thinking about it, stopped checking your phone every second or stirring the water.

Madeline was at school when the letter came, of course – she was always at school: tutoring, extra study sessions, meeting with her guidance counselor. For longer than she could remember, she had felt at home there. She was the smart one, and she was about to go to a university with hundreds of kids just like her – top of their class, formerly big fish in a small pond. She couldn’t wait.

 _It’s here_ was the whole text message from Isabelle. Nothing else. Just two words.

Madeline raced home from school, pushing through the front door and glancing around the dark, empty, abandoned house – both her parents were working, and Isabelle was out with her friends, as usual. Madeline grabbed the envelope from where it was sitting propped up against the sugar bowl on the counter. It was thin, tiny. Not that that really mattered, because everything was electronic anyways. It wasn’t a bad sign. She was sure it wasn’t a bad sign.

She sat down on her bed, her phone gripped in her hand so that she could call her parents right away, tell them the good news. She took three deep breaths, closing her eyes as she ripped open the envelope and unfolded the paper so that good news would be staring her right in the face when she opened her eyes again.

_Dear Madeline Fuhrman, she read. The Admissions Committee of Yale University has carefully reviewed your application. We regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2019. This year’s applicant pool was the strongest in the university’s history; in light of this, we were unable to offer admission to every worthy applicant._

The last two paragraphs disappeared in a blur, and for the first time in her life, Madeline understood firsthand the cliché of your blood running cold. She couldn’t speak; she couldn’t see; she couldn’t even breathe.

Before she could think, she unlocked her phone, opening her favorites where Alex was right at the top, second only to Leven and Isabelle. Alex would understand; of course he would understand. And as the phone was ringing, as Madeline was thinking of what to say, how to tell him, she had a flashback of the day before, of dozens of people gathering around Alex and telling him congratulations. All of a sudden, Alex was the successful one. And he deserved it – he had worked hard; he had never missed a practice; he played through pain and fatigue and injuries. He deserved everything he got. And Madeline? She clearly hadn’t worked hard enough. She was embarrassed. So she hung up before he could say hello, before he could even press accept.

She couldn’t tell him.

Leven was next on the list. Leven wasn’t even going to college; she would be the perfect person for Madeline to talk to. She would tell Madeline that it didn’t matter, that tons of other colleges would want her. Fuck Yale. It didn’t matter. But Madeline didn’t even manage to click Leven’s name. Leven was a free spirit. She didn’t care what anyone thought of her. And Madeline wasn’t like that. Madeline wasn’t that brave.

So she couldn’t tell Leven.

She couldn’t rally tell anyone.

Madeline crumpled up the paper, shoving it deep in a desk drawer, but a few minutes later she pulled it out, smoothing it flat, sticking it under the front cover of her Government notebook.

She didn’t cry. She didn’t fall apart. She didn’t do anything.

_Now what?_

 

Alex winced, barely even hearing Leven’s yelp as he squeezed her hand. “Alex, oh my God, stop!”

He stuck his other knuckle in his mouth, biting down hard and focusing on the sharp pain shooting through his hand instead of the hundreds of needle pricks stabbing into his ribs. It was his choice, and he was starting to think it was a stupid one. His new tattoo was a good idea, but getting it on his side? Stupid, Alex. Stupid.

He had been in the chair for three hours now, watching the tattoo artist wipe away ink and blood, his gloves sliding over Alex’s side, the sharp black lines of the tiger’s eyes rising up above the angry red of his skin. He was an Auburn man now, believing in work-hard-work and a spirit that is not afraid, and he wanted to get his new home’s mascot permanently inked into his skin.

At this moment, he was just hoping it would be worth the pain. 

Leven had jumped at the chance to accompany him to the tattoo shop – she loved tattoos but she was too nervous to actually get one, no matter how many times Alex tried to talk her into it. Madeline was nowhere to be found – she had been AWOL for the past week. Alex assumed she was holed up in her room studying for final exams or writing her valedictorian speech. And he had considered asking Isabelle, but seeing as how he had been trying to stay as far away from her as was possible, that might have been a bad idea. So Leven it was. 

“Ouch, Alex, that seriously hurts!” Leven pulled her hand away, shaking it out and flexing her fingers, although if she was in whiny mode, she was probably doing fine.

“Almost done,” the tattoo artist muttered, hunched over Alex’s side, squinting in the bright lights.

“Thank God,” Alex said, gritting his teeth against the pain and grabbing blindly for Leven’s hand again.

It was only a few more seconds (although Alex was convinced it was minutes, maybe an hour) before Travis sat back, stretching his arms up. “All done,” he said, smacking the flat of Alex’s stomach and smoothing a gauze pad over the rib-wide tattoo, securing it with black tape. “You know the drill, QB One. Don’t let it get too dry; don’t let it get too wet. No sun, no salt water, no touching.”

“I know, I know.” Alex sat up gingerly, grabbing onto Leven, hanging off her shoulder. “Lev, carry me.”

“I will not.” She pushed him off, but held open the glass door for him, shoving him gently into the front seat of her car. “So I was thinking.”

“Oh boy.” Alex was trying incredibly hard to buckle his seatbelt without it pressing against his tender left side, and eventually he just gave up, pulling it tight across his lap and sliding the rest of the belt behind him. “That’s no good.”

“Alex, just shut _up_!” She paused, waiting for him to respond before realizing that he was going to be petulant. “Okay, don’t actually shut up please.”

“Sorry.” He bit back a grin. “Go ahead.”

“Alright.” Leven took a deep breath. “Do you think it’s too late for me to, like… I don’t know. Go to school?”

“School…? Like… college?”

“No, Alex, like clown school. Yes, of course, college.” For once, Alex didn’t actually know what to say. He just stared at Leven, who narrowed her eyes at him and reached out to yank on his ear like she always did to piss him off. “Can you respond please?”

“Why?” The word burst out from his mouth before he could hold it back. “I mean… no, I really do mean _why_. Leven, you don’t want to go to college. You hate school!”

“I don’t hate it.” Leven flicked on her blinker, swerving onto the street that led to the reservoir. “Like I could do it. I just… it’s coming up really fast, right? And I don’t really know what I’m doing. So maybe I just need a back up plan, maybe I should…” She trailed off.

“A back up plan?” If Leven hadn’t been driving, Alex would have punched her. “What the hell are you talking about, Leven? You don’t need a fucking back up plan! You’re the brave one!”

“The brave one?”

“Madeline is the strong one. I’m the incredibly good-looking one, obviously—”

“Oh, nice, Alex.”

“And you are the brave one. You’re always the brave one; you have always been the brave one. So why are you being like this now?”

Leven pulled into Alex’s driveway, throwing her car into park the way Alex always told her not to – “Leven, _don’t_ , you are seriously going to fuck up your transmission! I don’t care if you don’t want to listen, but I will not be driving you to school if you total your car after I specifically told you not to!” – and popped open the lock on Alex’s side of the car.

“I was just trying to get your opinion.”

“Look, Lev, don’t be mad at me. I’m not criticizing you.”

“Except you are though, and I don’t get why you’re going to judge me.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Leven shut off the car and Alex knew he was in for it. When Madeline was mad, she was scary, but when Leven was pissed off? She was downright terrifying, even more so because she didn’t get mad often. Alex could think of maybe three times in their entire eighteen years of existence that she had gotten legitimately angry with him, and he was bracing himself for the fourth.

“You have _everything_ you ever wanted, Alex! Ever since I can remember you’ve been saying you were going to play in college and wind up in the NFL. You had it easy! And now that it’s here, now that it’s happening for you, you don’t even have to try. You’re so fucking unoriginal I can’t stand it. You’re doing the same shit your dad did; you’re already an SEC legacy. So what the hell do you know about being brave or doing your own thing?”

For a few seconds, Alex couldn’t even say anything, or maybe he just didn’t want to because he knew that if he did, if he even tried to respond, he would say a lot of things he would regret as soon as he got out of the car. So he just unbuckled his seatbelt, pushed the door open, and slammed it shut behind him, Leven zooming off before he could even get inside his house.

He was ready to storm into his room, lock the door, and blast All-American Rejects until he was calm enough to call Leven back and explain his side of things. But when he opened the door to his room, he quickly realized that was not an option.

“Um…” Isabelle jumped up from where she was sitting on his bed. “Mama Ludwig let me in. She said I could wait here for you to get home.”

Alex shut his door behind him, but he took a few steps back until he was pressed up against the door, as far away from Isabelle as he could get. “What are you doing here?”

“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said matter-of-factly, apparently realizing that he was a little hesitant to have her in his room (more than a little hesitant actually, but he was trying to hide that).

“I haven’t, I swear.”

“You’re gonna just make out with me and then pretend like I don’t exist?” She bit her lip, and Alex was starting to wonder if she was going to cry and he immediately felt bad. “I’m not asking you for anything, but it’s kind of shitty for you to pretend that nothing happened.”

“I’m not…” Alex looked down, scuffing the bottom of one shoe along the floor nervously.

“You are.”

He finally looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time in weeks because she was right. He was avoiding her, but it wasn’t for the reason that she thought. If he looked at her, if he talked to her, if he spent time with her, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Because this tiny little wisp of a girl, his best friend’s baby sister, had snuck up on him. Because if he really let himself think about it for too long he knew he would find himself saying fuck it, who cares what Madeline thinks and he couldn’t do that.

So he didn’t say anything, not even when Isabelle started to creep a little closer.

“What did I do, Alex?” she asked softly, close enough to put her hand flat on his chest, her fingertips brushing the edge of the tape holding his bandage in place. “Tell me what I did and I’ll fix it.”

“You didn’t do anything,” he managed to choke out.

“Are you sure?”

She was in his space and he could reach out and circle his waist with her hands if he wanted to. Hell, he could bend down and kiss her if he wanted to, pick her up and – nope. No, he couldn’t even entertain that idea, couldn’t even think about kissing Isabelle. Right behind her he could see the picture on his wall, the one of him and Madeline and Leven sitting on the dock at the Fuhrmans’ lake house. He couldn’t.

No matter how badly he wanted to.

So he did the same thing he had just done with Leven. He opened the door and left, because if he chose to live his life under a banner of avoidance, then that was the way it was going to be.

 

The longest that the Golden Trio had ever gone without talking was one week, two days, and sixteen hours, not that anyone was counting. While it was pretty typical for there to be a fight going on between two of the three, it was rare for all three of them to be giving each other the silent treatment. Although was that really what this was? Sure, Leven and Alex were not on the best terms. Technically, they were probably fighting. But Madeline had just disappeared from the face of the earth.

Alex was worried. Actually legitimately worried.

Which is why he started drinking.

Probably not the best way to cope with the fact that he hadn’t seen or spoken to his two best friends in almost two weeks, or the fact that they were going to graduate in _three weeks_ , or the fact that the girl he cared about more than he’d ever cared about anyone thought he hated her. No, definitely not the best way to cope.

But when he got invited to Liam Hemsworth’s end of the year party, he couldn’t really say no, could he? That would be rude. And when he arrived – solo – and Jen immediately pushed a beer into his hand, he couldn’t refuse. Because that would also be rude.

And considering the fact that he was standing in the middle of a room at a party populated by a bunch of kids he had never really liked without his two best girls by his side? Well. He really couldn’t afford to be rude.

It was a pretty safe bet that Madeline would not be at this party. Clearly, Alex had done something to piss her off because she hadn’t returned any of his phone calls or texts for the past two weeks, and every time she saw him in the hall at school she ran the other way before he even had time to call out her name.

But it was also a pretty safe bet that Leven would be here.

Alex was nursing his third beer in the corner next to the huge fireplace, surrounded by a little huddle of guys from his team and their girlfriends when saw her. Leven was standing in the middle of the room, not all that surprisingly, in the middle of a bunch of people who were all laughing at something she had just said. For just a moment, Alex caught Leven’s eye, and he was on the verge of getting up to go over there and say something to her, a desire fueled mainly by alcohol and loneliness, when she shook her head slightly and looked away, tossing her hair in that way she always did when Alex knew she was trying to make a point. She didn’t want to talk to him.

He stood up, setting his beer down on the hearth next to him. “Hey, where you going?” Jack’s voice was slurred slightly, his eyes not quite focusing. Alex just shrugged.

“Need some air?”

Alex pushed his way through the crowd of people, trying to make his way over to the patio door, but he was stopped by a tiny little figure darting in front of him. At first he thought it was Isabelle – he’d been looking everywhere for her, half hoping he would see her, half praying he wouldn’t – but it wasn’t.

 

Leven did _not_ want to be here. But she didn’t want Alex to think that she was just sitting around in her room, pining for her best friend. Even though that’s exactly what she was doing. But with Madeline being completely AWOL and Alex being completely ostracized, she needed something to get her out of her room, something to keep her mind off the fact that both of her best friends suddenly hated her.

She watched Alex stand up, and she so badly wanted to talk to him, to tell him that she was sorry and that she missed him, but she definitely couldn’t. That would mean she had lost, and she didn’t like losing. She had a little more pride than that.

Didn’t she?

Alex was pushing his way outside and he brushed right past her, barely looking down enough to meet her eyes. Leven wanted to scream after him, ask him what the hell his problem was because she was the one who deserved to be mad. But she didn’t do that either. There wasn’t much she was doing these days honestly. 

“Hey!” Someone knocked into her elbow, pushing her off balance, and she was about to turn around and tell the girl to watch it until she noticed it was Isabelle.

“What the hell, where have you been?” She asked the younger girl good-naturedly, or as good-naturedly as she could manage, under the circumstances.

Isabelle shrugged. “Around.”

“Are you okay?”

Isabelle let out a big sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, yeah. No, I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Leven kept Isabelle close to her for a while, watching her to make sure she didn’t wander off. Normally she was with Jackie and Amandla and Willow, but tonight the three of them were nowhere in sight. Leven didn’t ask where they were, and she also didn’t ask Isabelle what was going on with Madeline. Even if Isabelle knew, which Leven wasn’t sure she did, she didn’t want Madeline to know she was asking after her. If Madeline wanted to talk, if she wanted to tell Leven what was going on, then she would.

Leven and Isabelle were sitting on one of the couches in the huge sunken family room, surrounded by Josh, Liam, Dayo, Jen, and a few other people Leven didn’t know. Isabelle was sticking close to Leven, not saying much, throwing back drinks faster than Leven had ever seen her do before. Obviously something was wrong, but count on the Fuhrman sisters to keep their problems close to the vest.

Alex was making her way back into the room, weaving between people drunkenly, the smell of cigarette smoke and fresh air drifting off him, and he passed right in front of Leven and Isabelle, not even glancing their way. Or maybe he did and Leven just missed it because she was trying so hard not to meet his eye.

But she definitely didn’t miss it a few minutes later when she glanced over towards the fireplace where all of Alex’s friends were congregated and saw him all over some girl. Leven didn’t know who the girl was, wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen her before outside of the sea of faces she passed in the hallway every day, but Alex was clearly getting to knew her in a tongue-down-her-throat hands-all-over-her sort of way. Leven was used to Alex’s never-ending revolving door of girls, but all of a sudden Isabelle was pissed.

Leven had never really seen Isabelle mad before. She’d known her since she was born – they all had – but they had only recently started hanging out with her and her friends. And to be fair, Isabelle wasn’t really the type of person to get mad about just anything. That was probably why it was so surprising when Isabelle untangled herself from Leven, jumped up, and stormed over to the fireplace just as Alex was sliding his hands up the back of the girl’s shirt.

Isabelle didn’t say anything – she just cleared her throat, which Leven, in her current state of intoxication, thought was kind of badass, especially when she saw the look on Alex’s face. He jumped up, unceremoniously pitching the girl off his lap and onto the floor. “Isabelle,” Leven heard him say.

She couldn’t see the look on Isabelle’s face, and she was telepathically urging her little friend to speak up. When she realized there was no way she was going to be able to hear what was going on, she got up, edging her way through the crowd, which was slowly starting to pay attention the skirmish going on at the fireplace. And that’s when she began to realize what the hell was going on.

“Isabelle,” Alex said again. He was really wasted. Leven had known him for eighteen years – she had been there the first time he took his first drink, she had been there the first time he had gotten drunk, and she had been there almost every time since – she knew what drunk Alex looked like. And he was hammered. He reached forward, but Isabelle jumped out of his reach like he had burned her. “Is, come on.”  
“Come on _what_?” Isabelle hissed at him. “You really want to talk now? Because I gave you a chance to talk, I gave you a chance to tell me the truth, and you didn’t.”

“Isabelle, come on,” he said again. “I didn’t want to end up here.”

“Well, honey, this is where we are!”

Leven made a split second drunken decision that it was time to step in. “Whaaaat is going on, guys?”

Isabelle whirled around, her eyes widening in what looked like terror. “Nothing, Lev. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll tell you what’s going on.” Generally Alex could hold his alcohol pretty well. Sometimes he got a little rambly, sometimes he forgot what he was talking about in the middle of his sentence, but he was usually pretty coherent. Except for now – Leven could barely understand him because of how bad he was slurring. “Little Fuhrman is mad at me.”

“Well, yeah…”

“She thinks I don’t wanna be with her. And I do, I really do wanna be with her, and I wanted to tell her that but—”

It took a second to catch up in Leven’s alcohol-soaked brain, but when it did she let out a nearly wordless shriek, followed by a “What the _hell_ is going on?

Apparently Isabelle was just ignoring Alex’s shocking confession and just stood there glaring at him. “It doesn’t matter what you want anymore. If you’re gonna pull this shit right in front of me, I want nothing to do with you.”

“Please, don’t be like that.”

But as quick as she had gotten up to go over there, she was gone.

“What the fuck?” Leven was legitimately shrieking at this point, drawing the stares of everyone in the house who hadn’t already been staring, which was basically everyone at this point. “What the fuck did you do, Alexander?”

Alex just rolled his eyes at her, pushing his way through the room towards her and grabbing her around the waist, throwing her unceremoniously over his shoulder and carrying her, still shrieking at the top of her lungs, through the sliding glass doors.

When they finally reached the warm spring air, Alex dumped Leven onto the grass, reaching out to grab her as she stumbled, although neither of them was too steady on their feet. Leven hit Alex on the chest once, more of a nuisance than an actual punch. “Tell me right now. Right this second! What did you do to Little Fuhrman?”

Alex explained things as best he could and Leven listened as best she could, but she couldn’t keep up. All she knew is there was something about Isabelle’s douchebag boyfriend (“ _Ex_ -boyfriend, Leven, he’s her _ex_ , get it right!”) and something about a kiss, and after that Alex totally lost her. But even in her inebriation she could tell that Alex had real genuine feelings for this girl, something she had never seen in the eighteen years she had known him.

She had to do something.

But as it turned out, Leven never got a chance to do anything. None of them did. Because before she could come up with a plan, Madeline disappeared.

They didn’t know it at first. No one had heard from her in two and a half weeks, and Alex and Leven assumed she was holed up studying for finals, even though everyone knew that second semester senior finals barely mattered, and as long as you showed up you would pass.

And then one morning, around three o’clock, Alex woke up to Leven and Isabelle standing over his bed, something that in his haze of sleep he thought he must have been imagining. But he was sure he wouldn’t imagine the terrified looks that they had on their faces, so he sat up, clutching the blankets around him.

“It’s Madeline,” Isabelle said, her voice small and scared. “She’s missing.”

 

Alex rubbed his hand down his face, trying to wake himself up. They were speeding down the highway in Leven’s Beemer, but Alex was driving. He didn’t trust Isabelle or Leven behind the wheel. He didn’t trust himself either actually, but driving was taking his mind off the current situation.

What was the current situation? Madeline was gone; that was all anyone really knew. She hadn’t showed up at the house at all that day, and when she wasn’t home by two in the morning, Isabelle had started to panic. She stayed at her house long enough to wake up her parents and then she had run – literally, sprinted – over to Leven’s.

“She can’t just be missing,” Alex repeated for the thousandth time. “She didn’t leave a note or anything?”

“No!” Isabelle snapped. She had barely spoken three words to Alex after they got in the car. “There was nothing!”

“ _Excuse me_ ,” Alex turned on her, barely biting back the words that were to follow. “I’m trying to help!”

“I didn’t want your help,” Isabelle muttered quietly. “The only reason you’re here is because of Leven.”

“Hey,” Leven interjected. “He loves your sister, Is. It would be cruel not to have him here.”

“Whatever. Where are we going?”

“If I knew that, do you think I would just be driving around like a crazy person? If I knew where Madeline was, do you think I would be here instead?”

“ _No_ , because I _don’t_ think about you, Alexander!”

“ _STOP_.” Leven’s interjection was sharp. “You two need to shut the hell up. This isn’t about you or whatever crazy thing you two had. I get it. You’re hurt. Both of you are hurt. But Madeline is fucking _missing_ so just shut up for two seconds so we can—”

“Oh my God!” Alex whipped the car around so fast that Leven almost smacked her head against the two front seats where she was leaning.

“The hell are you doing?”

“I know where she is.”

 

As soon as they saw Madeline, everything was forgotten. Isabelle forgot that Alex had hooked up with someone else. Alex forgot that he had lost this tiny, beautiful firework of a girl. Leven forgot that she was scared all the time. All anyone could focus on was Madeline, and the fact that she hadn’t been forgotten. 

As soon as Alex took the exit, the girls knew where he was going.

“The lake house, of _course_.” Isabelle shook her head, checking her phone for the five hundredth time in thirty minutes and shooting off a text to her parents.

When they pulled up the long lake house drive, the house came into view in the darkness with Madeline’s car parked in its usual spot in front of it. Alex hadn’t even completely stopped the car before Isabelle was jumping out, leaving the car door wide open in her wake.

“Jesus,” Alex muttered, turning the car off and throwing the keys to Leven, slamming Isabelle’s door behind him. They followed her into the house, where they could hear her yelling Madeline’s name as she ran through the halls, checking each room.

And then they heard, “Oh my _God_!” and both of them broke into a run. Alex didn’t really know what he was expecting – all he knew is that out of the three of them, Madeline was the least likely to act irrationally. This was a new experience for all of them.

Alex and Leven raced up the stairs, Alex beating Leven soundly, and rounded the corner to Madeline’s room, where they just saw Isabelle standing in the doorway. Alex pushed past her, nudging her out of the way, 

“ _Heeeeyyy_!” A tiny little figure hit him like a tornado, practically knocking off his feet. “Alex, you’re here!”

This couldn’t be Madeline – there was no way. Out of the three of them, she was the calm one, the one who was always in control. Even when she was drinking, she was more in charge of them than Alex and Leven were when they were sober. Suffice it to say, Alex had never seen her like this.

“Madeline…” He grabbed her by the arms, simultaneously pushing her back and steadying her, as she was weaving back and forth so bad he wasn’t really sure how he was upright. “Maddie, what the hell happened?” He glanced behind her, where basically all he could see was alcohol.

“What do you mean?” Madeline turned around, stumbling back through the minefield of empty cups towards her bed. “Nothing happened.”

Isabelle pushed Alex out of the way, picking her way towards Madeline and sitting down next to her. “You didn’t come home, Madeline. You skipped school and you disappeared. Obviously _something_ happened.”

Madeline rolled over, turning her back towards them to face the wall. “I’m fine.”

“Clearly.” Alex cleared his throat, crossing the room quickly and dragging Leven behind him, who still seemed pretty stunned given the fact that she hadn’t opened her mouth yet. “Just tell us. Come on. You’ve been ignoring me for weeks and I want to know why.”

Madeline didn’t say anything.

“Now.”

Leven and Alex had a quick, fiercely whispered conversation (“We have to do something!” “I’m not stupid, Lev, I am well aware of that.” “Just because you’re mad at Is doesn’t mean you have to yell at me.” “Shut _up_ , Leven.” “You shut up!”) until Madeline finally lifted her face from her pillow, flicking a tiny, folded up, worn piece of paper at the three of them. Alex grabbed it, practically snatching it out of Isabelle’s hand, and unfolded it.

Isabelle and Leven descended on him immediately, reading it over his shoulder, and he was barely past the heading before Isabelle let out an audible gasp. “Oh, no.”

Alex was still reading when Leven grabbed the piece of paper out of his hand, crumpling it up and throwing it in the general direction of the garbage can. “Hey!”

“Shut up, Alex,” she hissed. “Seriously, Maddie, fuck them. You are way too good for that stodgy rat hole of a school. Who needs them?”

“I do!” Madeline sat up with astonishing aplomb for someone so drunk off their butt. She tried to grab the bottle of Jack off her nightstand, but Isabelle snatched it away, passing it off to Alex out of reach behind Leven’s back. Madeline fell back against her pillows. “I need them.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Alex asked softly, having noted the date on the letter right away.

Isabelle stood up abruptly. “I’m gonna clean,” she said, disappearing out of the room. 

“Because _you_ ,” she pointed to Alex, “have everything you ever wanted.” Alex rolled his eyes. Why did all of his friends think that his life was so easy, for fuck’s sake. “And _you_ ,” it was Leven’s turn, “aren’t ever scared about what’s coming. I, on the other hand, have nothing I want and am always scared. So I just… couldn’t.”

“You have us,” Leven said simply. “We’re here.”

Isabelle breezed back into the room with a giant kitchen trash bag, throwing in half full bottles and plastic cups. “Here’s what we’re gonna do,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m gonna make sure there is no evidence of alcohol anywhere in this cabin. Lev, you get her some water or coffee or pancakes or whatever the hell she needs to sober up.” Leven stood up, ready to hoist Madeline up off the bed.

“What about me?”

“Just go,” Isabelle said, looking at Alex coldly. He rolled his eyes again, slamming the door behind him as he left the room and headed outside.

It was seven in the morning, and the sun was just starting to break over the water. With all the drama of Madeline being gone and the long drive, Alex had so much adrenaline in his system that it was no wonder he had been wide awake, even though he’d missed out on four hours of sleep already. But as soon as he sat down in one of the chairs on the end of the dock, he could feel himself starting to shut down.

He sat there for a little while, and for all he knew, he must have drifted off to sleep because when someone plopped down at his side and he opened his eyes, it was a whole lot warmer and brighter than he had last remembered it. “Is,” Alex said, blinking in the harsh sunlight. “What are you doing?”

“What are _you_ doing?” 

It was the first time Alex had even been near Isabelle – much less alone with her – since the disastrous confrontation at Liam Hemsworth’s party. He had wanted to call her so many times, even had her number dialed a couple of times before he chickened out, not able to press send. He knew he had to explain – she deserved an explanation, but he didn’t really know what he could say. _Oh yeah, I like you a lot, I could really see myself with you, but what’s the point? I can’t do that to Madeline, plus I’m about to move halfway across the country._

Yeah. He could really see that going over well.

“What do you mean?” Alex decided his best bet was just to play dumb.

She wasn’t having it. “You know what I mean, Alex.” For the first time in almost three weeks, Isabelle didn’t look pissed off at him. She looked almost… sad. “For what it’s worth… I’m sorry I yelled at you. At that party. I was just—”

“Isabelle, don’t.” Alex leaned forward, scooting his chair towards her until his knee was just touching hers. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”

She pulled back. “I thought you were different.” She was suddenly cold again. “I mean, you’ve been in my life since before I could remember… I’ve seen you with all the other girls. I should have known better, but for some reason, I just thought maybe with me… you’d be different.”

“It _is_ different, Is.” 

She stood up, walking away from him to the very edge of the dock. “If you making out with other girls right in front of me is different for you, then I really don’t want to know what’s normal.”

“That’s not me.”

Isabelle didn’t turn around, didn’t look at Alex at all. “Sure seems like it.”

“I told you… it’s different.”

“How is it different, Alex?” Isabelle was two parts exasperated, one part pissed, if Alex could judge from her tone.

“Because…” He stood up (finally), walking over to the edge of the dock and sitting down next to her. Not too close – he didn’t want her to push him in, and he had a really bad feeling that she might try it in her current state of mind, but close enough so that she could tell he was serious. With what he was about to say, he needed her to know he wasn’t just fucking around this time.

And to be fair, Isabelle was right about him – he had spent most of his high school years just fucking around. He never met a girl he liked enough to stay with or not cheat on or love. He had mainly just used girls as a distraction or as something to do during the off-season. Mostly he had just concentrated on playing football or hanging out with Madeline and Leven. Of course, there had been that disastrous incident back in tenth grade, when (for some Godforsaken reason), he and Leven had tried to date. All around, it had just been a shit show. Of course he loved Leven, but not like that, something he didn’t figure out until they were already three months into their relationship and hating each other. It was a testament to how strong their friendship was that when they broke up, everything just kind of went back to normal. No harm, no foul.

But except for Leven, he had never felt anything more than lust or maybe a very fleeting interest in anyone. Until Isabelle.

That’s what he had to tell her.

“Because, Isabelle,” Alex said softly. “I want to be with you.”

He thought it was a pretty momentous declaration, at least for him, but Isabelle apparently did not agree. She just shook her head and made a disbelieving noise. “No you do not. If you did, you would have said something weeks ago. And then I wouldn’t have had to see you with that girl. And we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“I do,” he said, as earnestly as he knew how. “It’s just not that easy.”

“Why not?” 

“Well…” Alex didn’t really know how to start. Honestly he hadn’t predicted that Isabelle would give him a chance to explain himself. And he’d thought about what he might say to her, but he hadn’t quite worked it out in his head. “Well.”

“Well?”

“If we were… together, then that would be great. I would love it. But I don’t know if Madeline would.”

Isabelle scooted away slightly. “This isn’t about Madeline.”

“She’s my best friend, Is. I can’t do that to her.”

“You don’t care about me enough to even talk to her? She loves you – she will give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Flashbacks of Madeline throughout the years sped through Alex’s head. She was protective beyond belief, and that applied to everyone she cared about. He hadn’t ever thought about how they all stacked up to Madeline, but he had to figure that if it came down to him or Isabelle, she would pick Isabelle. Of course she would – Isabelle was her sister. It didn’t matter how long he and Madeline had been friends – Isabelle was family. 

“I do care about you!”

“Not enough.” Isabelle got up, dusting off the back of her shorts and slowly backing away. “Not enough to talk to her.”

“Isabelle—”

“No, I get it.” 

“Isabelle, wait.”

But she didn’t – didn’t stop, didn’t turn around, didn’t even acknowledge the fact that Alex was getting up and chasing after her until he grabbed her around the waist, spinning her towards him, and kissing her, with the huge expanse of water stretching out behind them. 

Alex had thought about this moment a lot in the past few weeks – what it would feel like if she ever decided to give him another chance. And for a few moments, with Isabelle so close, his mouth moving over hers, her hands grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him closer, he couldn’t for the life of him remember why he had ever hesitated. 

“What are you doing?” At first, Alex didn’t think it could be real. The voice had to be in his head, because if it wasn’t then this was his worst nightmare. He jerked back, the stiff breeze off the lake weaving its way between him and Isabelle and yanking them even further apart.

“Maddie,” Alex managed, looking over Isabelle’s head at her still-drunk, newly-irate sister, standing behind them with Leven at her side, looking stunned. “Maddie, I—”

“That’s my little sister,” Madeline said, menacingly calm. “That’s my _little sister_.”

“Madeline—” Isabelle started.

“What are you doing? How long has this been going on?”

“Not at all,” Alex said hurriedly. “It hasn’t been – it’s not—” He stopped when Isabelle turned to stare at him, raising her eyebrows. “I mean – well – it’s new.”

“It’s _new_?” Madeline shrieked, throwing herself at Alex. She was relatively ineffectual, managing to hit his chest a few times with a few jabs that didn’t even sway him. Leven quickly darted in, dragging her backwards, and Isabelle inserted herself between her sister and Alex.

“I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything then!” Madeline yelled. “Just go, Alex.”

“What?”

“ _Go_.”

 

“You guys look _great_!”

“Now remember – no one puts anything on Snapchat or Twitter or Instagram or Facebook until the ceremony is over, got it?”

“Got it.”

“Natalie, you got it?”

“I got it, Mom. God.”

“Watch your language.” Mama Ludwig stood in front of Alex, messing with his hair and adjusting his graduation cap, Leven on his other side. 

“Mom, it’s _fine_.”

“Okay, okay.” She took a couple steps back, holding up her phone for pictures. “Smile, you two!”

 _You two_. It was two days after the blow up at the lake house – and Madeline still hadn’t come around. Hadn’t texted Alex at all, hadn’t tried to talk to him – even his phone calls went straight to voicemail. He was starting to think she had actually just blocked him. Leven tried to go back and forth between the two of them, but once Madeline figured out she wasn’t going to shun Alex completely, any talk of getting the trio back together had ceased. No matter how much Alex begged, Leven wasn’t budging, saying that Madeline would come around when she was ready.

The thing was there wasn’t much time for Madeline to come around, because they were graduating – today. 

Alex and Leven were standing on the giant grass lawn of the high school, hundreds of other high schoolers and their families milling around, taking pictures, welcoming newcomers, and squealing when they saw their friends. They were joined by Alex’s entire family – his mom and dad, his two sisters and his brother, and his grandparents – and Leven’s parents, brother, aunt, and uncle. 

In all the years that they had been friends, Alex had thought about this day a few times. He had never once thought that Madeline wouldn’t be right beside him. They had big plans, the three of them – they would get through graduation together, and then (of course) they would go to the lake one last time. Because Alex was now a student-athlete, he had to leave earlier than any of the rest of them, and he would be driving down to Alabama in a week to start training for the fall season. This day was really all they had left.

Alex and Leven stood dutifully for what seemed like hundreds of pictures, swapping in siblings, parents, and grandparents. Finally their mothers pushed the two of them together, and as the first flash went off, Madeline popped up in between them.

“What the _fuck_?” The word popped out of Alex’s mouth before he could stop himself, and his mother immediately scolded him. He left Leven standing in the middle of the crowd, pulling Madeline off to the side. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m graduating. As are you, as surprising as that might seem.” It was (hopefully) a good sign that Madeline’s dry sense of humor was back.

“You know what I mean.”

Madeline sighed, her 2015 tassel swinging back and forth as she shook her head. “Honestly… I suck.” Alex started to open her mouth, but she shook her head harder, cutting him off. “No, just let me get this out.” She took a deep breath. “I talked to Isabelle for a while, and I didn’t realize that she… like actually likes you. And you know how you’ve been in the past, which is why I was so pissed off for a while. But I also know you really well. I know how much you love me and Leven, and if you feel the same way Isabelle says she feels about you, then I know you’ll take care of her.”

Alex hadn’t spoken to Isabelle either, figuring it was just better to play it safe at this point. She hadn’t tried to talk to him either, so he was guessing she thought the same thing. So he latched onto the first piece of information he could. “How does she say she feels?”

Madeline rolled her eyes. “Is that what’s important right now? I’m trying to apologize.” Seeing the look on Alex’s face, she snorted. “She really likes you, you douche-canoe. I don’t know why, and believe me, I tried to talk her out of it, but she basically thinks the sun rises and sets with you.”

Alex couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. “That’s… ah, that’s really great.”

“Pay attention to me for two seconds, you ass.” Madeline let out a laugh, hitting him on the arm, and Alex realized suddenly that she was back. At that moment, as if on cue, Leven came running over, having extricated herself as quickly as possible from their families. 

“Please tell me that if you’re laughing, it’s not because you’re being mean.”

“I don’t have a mean laugh!” Madeline protested.

“You have an evil laugh, that’s basically the same thing.”

“Just shut up.”

The three of them descended into one of their big group hugs, the kind that ended and started without any of them saying a word. As they stood there, they could hear the teachers calling out for them to line up, the parents and friends and families already piling into the already cramped gym. 

“Let’s go,” Madeline said, stepping away first with tears shining in her eyes.

“Oh my God, are you _crying_?”

“Quiet down, Alexander, I’m not crying.”

“You are, you’re crying.”

They all fell into line, having to split up as F, L, and R were nowhere near each other in the alphabet. Before long, they could hear the familiar notes of Pomp and Circumstance filtering out the gym into the hallway, and it was hard to believe that the moment they had been working towards for twelve years was finally here.

 

The weekend before senior year had started, the Golden Trio had been at the lake. So it was only fitting that the year end how it began. 

The three of them sat on the edge of the dock, legs dangling in the water, caps and gowns long discarded, a beer in hand. “Cheers,” Alex said, holding his bottle up in front of the huge full moon. “We did it.”

“We fucking did it.” Leven and Madeline clinked their beers against his.

“I’m glad you guys are here,” Madeline said sincerely. “You guys are my family, and I’m sorry I wasted so much time.”

“I’m sorry too,” Alex said softly, taking a long sip and setting the bottle down at his side. “For everything.”

“Oh my God, can we _not_ for two seconds?” Leven snorted into her beer. “We fight sometimes, but we’re here now and who cares about that other shit?”

“Amen.”

They sat in silence for a while, and Alex found himself thinking about all their great memories: the time they dragged all of Alex’s blankets out to his trampoline, falling asleep there while looking at the stars; the hours they spent sitting in Leven’s basement, Alex playing Xbox, Madeline doing homework, and Leven looking up makeup tutorials on YouTube; the time Alex got really sick on Easter and ended up leaving dinner early, Madeline and Leven trailing behind him to take care of him for the rest of the day; the time Alex was laying in bed watching Bob’s Burgers at eleven o’clock at night when Leven came barreling down the stairs, covering her eyes in fear that he had a girl with him, and ended up running straight into the brand new dryer that had just been delivered that afternoon; the time Alex discovered his old automated race track in the spare room and spent hours setting it up on the pool table and making the girls play with him. It was the little things like that that were going to make him miss his girls more than anything.

“I’ve gotta pee,” Leven said matter-of-factly, shrugging her blanket off and standing up.

“Yeah,” Madeline said. “I’ll, ah… I’ll come with you.”

Alex stared up at them, frowning slightly. “Um, okay. Don’t get lost, I guess.”

The girls had only been gone for a couple minutes when Isabelle appeared on the far end of the dock, illuminated by the moonlight bouncing off the water. Alex didn’t even hear her until she was standing right beside him, so caught up he was in his reminiscing. “Hey.”

“What are you doing here?” He started to stand up, but she sat down quickly, pulling Leven’s blanket over her shoulders.

“I’m here for you.”

“What do you—”

“You didn’t think I was just going to let you leave, did you?” Isabelle smiled, scooting closer to him and squirming her way under his arm the way Leven always did when she wanted a cuddle. Alex stiffened for a second, but she easily snaked her arm around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder, and it felt so natural that he was able to relax into it easily, like they had been doing it for months.

For a little while, there wasn’t much he felt the need to say, until he realized Leven and Madeline hadn’t returned from the “bathroom.”

“They were in on this, weren’t they?”

“Oh, definitely.” Isabelle kicked up a spray of water, the light catching it as made tiny ripples in front of them. “I don’t know why you’re so scared of her honestly.”

“I’m not scared. I just…” Alex paused, and Isabelle smirked up at him. “Yeah, you’re right. She scares me.”

“See, everyone thinks you’re such a big, tough, football player, but I know the real you.”

“Oh, do you?” Alex pretended to tip her into the water, and she grabbed him around the neck.

“Oh, heck no. If I’m going in, so are you.”

“So she’s not gonna kick my ass if she comes out here and sees me kissing you, is she?”

“I’ll protect you,” Isabelle said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” She smiled up at him sweetly, and he kissed her forehead. Up until this point, his life had been moving so fast – not just this year, but for the last eighteen. In three months, everything had changed, not just for him but for Maddie and Leven too. There was a lot that was about to come, and there was a lot that they still had to talk about, but just for now, he could sit on the dock with this gorgeous girl at his side and enjoy the moment.

 

“Leven, you’ve gotta get out.”

“I will not!” She was sitting defiantly in the front seat of Alex’s car, which was packed to the brim with everything his own. “I’m not getting out, so you’re just gonna have to take me with you.”

“I would love to, Lev, but I know you only wanna go so you can check out the ninety-nine other football players I’m gonna be running around with all the time.”

“I resent that.” She paused, thinking. “Although now that you mention it…”

Alex rummaged around in the duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder for the spare key, eventually coming up with it and unlocking the door, hauling Leven out of the car and depositing her gently onto his driveway. “Come see me anytime?”

“Always.”

It was Moving Day. Alex was all ready to go, as were his parents, who would be trailing him with the truck. It was going to be a long drive – about eighteen hours, and by the time they actually pulled into Auburn, he was going to be beat. Even so, he was really glad his friends were there to see him off.

“I’m with Leven,” Madeline said, popping out of the back seat, where God only knew how she had fit. “I’m going too.”

“Goddammit, Madeline,” Alex snorted. “You’re out of your mind. And you have much bigger places to be, don’t you think?”

If there was one thing Alex loved about Madeline, it was that she was resilient. Sure, she moped about Yale for a little while, but by the time they were officially graduated, she had let it go. And her decision had shocked more than one person – Stanford. It wasn’t the East Coast, and it wasn’t part of the Holy Trinity (two-thirds of which Madeline had been accepted into), but it was a great school. And bonus – Leven was going with her. The two of them were going to live together, and Leven was going to work for a while. Then – if she wanted to – she could think about going to school. It was a perfect arrangement for everyone.

“If they’re going, I’m going,” Isabelle said, skipping over from where she had been picking through Alex’s suitcase, trying to jack one of his sweatshirts without him noticing. (For what it was worth, he noticed. He just didn’t mind.)

“I would love nothing more, babe.” He pulled her over, kissing the top of her head. “But I think your parents might have some problems with that.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Leven said, rolling her eyes. “I swear, you guys are so gross.”

“Don’t worry, Lev. You’re not gonna have to see me anymore, you know.”

“Don’t remind me!”

Madeline and Leven wandered away, talking to Mama and Papa Ludwig as they put the finishing touches on Alex’s load of crap. Alex pulled Isabelle onto the street, up against the driver’s side door of his car. 

“So.”

“So.”

Isabelle reached up, putting her arms around his neck, her fingers resting right on the pressure point on the back of his neck, and he knew she could feel his heartbeat under her hand. “I’m gonna miss you,” she said softly.

“I’m gonna be talking to you all the time, I promise. You’re gonna wish you had time to miss me.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t have more time.”

“Hey,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “We’ve got loads more time. I’m not worried.”

“I’m not either.” Alex slipped his hands under her hair, his thumbs brushing her jawbone, and he kissed her quickly, once, twice, three times, before gently pushing her away. 

“Call me when you get there?”

“Of course.”

They were interrupted by Madeline and Leven, who barged in, bursting the bubble Alex and Isabelle had drawn around themselves. “Break it up, break it up,” Madeline said. “I may have given you my blessing, but time’s up.”

Isabelle stretched up one more time, kissing Alex’s cheek, before she headed into the house to find Natalie and Nick, leaving the Golden Trio behind.

They had promised each other, no matter how cliché it might have been, that they wouldn’t say good-bye, just see you later. Because it wasn’t really good-bye. They had been together for too long for it to be good-bye. 

Alex pulled them both close, kissing them each on the forehead.

“See you later?”

“See you later.”

There wasn’t much else they could say – they would have hundreds of conversations over the next year, about their classes and their new friends and Alex’s games and Isabelle – there was no need for that now. Instead, Alex kept his eyes on them in the rearview mirror until they were out of sight, knowing that no matter what happened, no matter how far away they were, he would never be lonely.

 

_When you’re young, life’s a dream_  
_It’s a beautiful and a burning thing_  
_And we grow up, and then it’s gone_  
_But the memory goes on and on and on_


End file.
